Have there been more hurricanes in recent years? Is that from climate change? Or is it just an advancement of technology? The National Hurricane Center's Christopher W. Landsea, Chief of the Tropical Analysis and Forecast Branch, and Eric Blake, a Senior Hurricane Specialist, studied this topic in a recent article of theirs. About 15 years ago, scientists and researchers found that the number of hurricanes had increased over the past hundred years. But interestingly, during the 1940s and 1950s, there was an increase in short-lived or low-impact storms. At the same time, there were more aircraft over the oceans and the Hurricane Hunters began missions looking for hurricanes. Last year, nearly 42 trillion dollars of damage were caused by tropical cyclones. This included a record-breaking 13 in the U.S., six of which were in Louisiana. Down in Central America, trillions of dollars in damage was delivered by destructive hurricanes such as Hurricane Iota . O...
